Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Forget global warming: Southward shift of Jet Stream during 'Little Ice Age' brought stronger and more frequent winter storms

Paul Homewood
Climate Change Dispatch
Fri, 07 Feb 2014 13:01 UTC
Image
Click to enlarge
With the recent run of stormy weather in the UK, it is worth reflecting on just how stormy it was during the Little Ice Age, and even before.

Brian Fagan, in his book "The Little Ice Age", states that,"throughout Europe, the years 1560-1600 were cooler and stormier, with late wine harvests and considerably stronger winds than those of the 20th Century. Storm activity increased by 85% in the second half of the 16th Century and the incidence of severe storms rose by 400%.".

HH Lamb comes to similar conclusions, "there was a greater intensity, and a greater frequency, of intense storm development during the Little Ice Age", in his book "Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe".

Edward Bryant, in the book, "Natural Hazards", gives us a rundown of some of the biggest storms.

Comment: See also:

Study shows sharply accelerating trade winds

Venus' winds are mysteriously speeding up

Read More...
Ice Cube

Niagara Falls stops again: Cascading water is frozen in bitter temperatures for a second time this winter


Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 12:30 UTC
Image
Frozen: Lights that usually reflect the water of Niagara Falls illuminate the ice after it froze over on Monday
For the second time in what has been a frigid winter in the Northeastern United States, Niagara falls has come to an icy halt as the six million cubic feet of water that typically flow over the falls every minute has frozen over.

The flow of water over the falls typically can withstand icy temperatures like those that have frozen much of the country this winter, but Monday's high of 9 degrees Fahrenheit brought Niagara Falls to a standstill - and photographers were there to snap some stunning images of the frozen waterfall.

In January, another record-breaking cold front managed to freeze the mighty falls in a 'polar vortex' that turned the cascading water to ice - and affected about 240 million people in the U.S. and southern Canada.

No thaw is expected anytime soon, as temperatures at the western New York tourist attraction will dip below 0 degrees Fahrenheit Monday night through Tuesday morning.
Read More...
Windsock

Huge wave breaks window at California restaurant


San Jose Mercury News
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 04:09 UTC
Heavy surf Saturday caused damage and minor injuries along the Central California coast.

In Santa Barbara County, strong waves sent water crashing into a beachside restaurant in Goleta. The manager of the Beachside Bar-Cafe on the Goleta Pier told KEYT-TV that one of his employees was swept out into the ocean and underneath the pier, where he was able to get out of the water. Another employee was pushed back inside the restaurant by a rogue wave but was not seriously hurt.

ola
© Youtube

Comment: See also:
- Sinkhole opens up on Santa Cruz coast, California
- Traffic disrupted by sinkhole in Oxnard, California
- California reporter stuck in mud reporting on dangerous weather

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Most UK sinkholes not covered by home insurance

Christopher Menon
The Guardian
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 01:00 UTC
uk sinkhole
© Colin Parsons/PAOne of two sinkholes that opened on farmland between Sittingbourne and Faversham in Kent.
Once a rare occurrence, a recent spate of holes suddenly appearing raises some tricky questions about insurance

Sinkholes weren't something the average householders thought about in the past - and despite a spate of recent occurrences - are very rare. But if the ground does open up and swallow your house, there is good news and bad news: while insurers will usually pay for your property to be repaired, they are unlikely to cough up for any damage to your garden.

Comment: If these sinkholes, plus all of the other crazy phenomena continue to increase, home insurance will be the last of our worries.
For an interesting new theory on the cause of sinkholes, and the 'opening up' of the Earth recently, make sure to listen to the latest SOTT Talk Radio Show:
Is World War 3 Imminent? Russia vs USA, Sinkholes and Weird Weather

Read More...
Arrow Down

Atlanta sinkhole traps fire truck

Marcus K. Garner
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 14:41 UTC
Image
© AJC.comA sinkhole engulfed the wheel of an Atlanta Fire Department truck on Monday along Ashby Grove in southwest Atlanta.
A 13-foot sinkhole opened up beneath a Atlanta firetruck early Monday afternoon in southwest Atlanta.

Around 12:45 p.m., Atlanta Fire & Rescue Department spokeswoman Janet Ward said Ladder Truck 1, from Station 1 near Castleberry Hill was going west on Ashby Grove when the road crumbled under the truck.

No one was hurt, Ward said.

"Miraculously, there are little signs of damage," she said.

The truck was quickly rescued from the eight-foot deep sinkhole by department vehicles, the street was cordoned off and City ofAtlanta officials have been notified, authorities said.

The cause of the sinkhole is unknown at this time.
Read More...
Bomb

Powerful eruption from Guatemala's Pacaya volcano

Sarah Gordon
Mail Online
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 13:06 UTC
Image
© APAsh was spewed 2.3 miles into the sky as Pacaya erupted over the weekend
Thousands of people could face evacuation in Guatemala after its most active volcano - and popular visitor attraction - erupted, shooting plumes of ash and vapor more than two miles into the air and spewing glowing-hot rocks.

The Pacaya volcano, just 24 miles from the tourist town of Antigua and near the capital Guatemala City, erupted early on Sunday, sending an ash plume high into the sky.

Flights to the area have been cancelled and an amber alert has been issued, warning the 3,000 people who live nearby to be ready for evacuation.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Yellowstone National Park: Land is rising, and helium emissions increase

Robert W. Felix
IceAgeNow
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 10:58 UTC
Yellowstone1
© MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
More interestingly, helium-4 emissions have increased dramatically.

During the last five months, station NRWY GPS has recorded about 3.5 inches of lift (the land is rising) and about 1 cm (0.4 in) of movement toward the southeast.

Measurements from other stations in northern Yellowstone show smaller movements forming a circular pattern of deformation of the park floor.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Unusual blue auroras seen over Norway


SpaceWeather
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 18:53 UTC
Northern Lights are usually green, and sometimes red. Those are the colors produced by oxygen when it is excited by electrons raining down from space. On Feb. 22nd, Micha Bäuml of Straumfjord, Norway, witnessed an appariton of aurora-blue:
Blue Auroras
© Micha Bäuml Taken by Micha on February 22, 2014 @ Straumfjord Norway.
"All of a sudden the sky exploded," says Micha. "The aurora looked like a giant flame."

In auroras, blue is a sign of nitrogen. Energetic particles striking ionized molecular nitrogen (N2+) at very high altitudes produces a cold azure glow of the type captured in Micha's photo. Why it overwhelmed the usual hues of oxygen on Feb 22nd is unknown. Auroras still have the capacity to surprise.

Any auroras tonight, blue or otherwise, will be a bit of a surprise. Geomagnetic conditions are quiet. NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 5% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on March 3rd.
Read More...
Eye 2

10ft python devours crocodile after five-hour battle in Australian lake


The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 16:03 UTC
Image
© EPAA 10ft python used its flexible jaws to devour a crocodile in one piece near Queensland’s Lake Moondarra

A snake took on a crocodile and won following a dramatic five-hour long battle.

The snake - thought to be python measuring around 10ft - constricted the crocodile to death, before dragging it to shore and eating it whole in fifteen minutes in front of a shocked crowd of onlookers.

The incident was captured on camera by author Tiffany Corlis at Lake Moondarra in Queensland, Australia.

Ms Corlis, from nearby Mount Isa, was enjoying breakfast at the idyllic spot when a group of canoeists alerted her to the fierce fight.

She said: "When we reached the water's edge the snake had wrapped itself around the croc and was tightening.
Read More...
Galaxy

What ever happened to plain old Apocalypse?

Ira Chernus
TomDispatch
Tue, 25 Feb 2014 14:47 UTC
Image
For those of us of a certain age, it seems as if the world has always been ending. It's easy now to forget just how deep fears and fantasies about a nuclear apocalypse went in the "golden" 1950s. And I'm not just thinking about kids like me "ducking and covering" at the advice of Bert the Turtle, while sirens screamed in the big city and the emergency warning system Conelrad blared from a radio on our teacher's desk. Here, from Spencer Weart's book Nuclear Fear, is a typical enough description of everyday life in that nuclearized America. "Operation Alert" was a set of exercises that started in 1954 and were meant to prepare the populace for imminent attack. As Russian nuclear-armed bombers "supposedly approached," writes Weart, "citizens in scores of cities obeyed the howl of sirens and sought shelter, leaving the streets deserted. Afterward, photographs of the empty streets offered an eerie vision of a world without people. The press reported with ghoulish precision how many millions of Americans 'died' in each mock attack."

Comment: For more on the truth surrounding this very important subject, check out:
Celestial Intentions: Comets and the Horns of Moses
Crowded Skies
Xenophobic Self-Destruction Or, How the Odyssey and the Old and New Testaments Can Predict Our Future

Read More...